What Do You Get With $1.8 Million Urbandale Park Shelter?

Urbandale is close to starting to build a $1.8 million park shelter house in

Architect Brent Schipper of Ask Studio, 3716 Ingersoll Ave., said the new shelter house/tornado shelter in Walker Johnston Park could be finished by this time next year.

The City Council voted 4-1 Tuesday to approve the site plan for the building.

Price Tag Stuns Initially

When Schipper told the Urbandale Plan and Zoning Commission that the shelter house would cost $1.8 million, Commissioner David Russell exclaimed: "$1.8 million? How big is this structure?"

The building's price tag has dropped some jaws and generated some opposition - City Councilman Tom Gayman has opposed it for six months. 

But Schipper told the City Council this week that most of the cost is coming from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the state, so the city actually is getting a bargain for its money.

The current Walker Johnston Park shelter house is a 1958 building that originally was built as a family home and is not worth the cost of replacing its roof, wiring and windows, according to city officials.

The original goal for the shelter house was 5,000 to 6,000 square feet for less than $140 a square foot, for a total project cost of about $800,000, said Schipper. "That, we found out very quickly, was going to be a very hard task." he said.

He noted that Windsor Heights' new community center cost $312 per square foot, the DART transit center in downtown Des Moines cost $325 per square foot and the Des Moines River Walk kiosk building is costing $400 per square foot.

City Pays Just 15 Percent

When a citizen told the city that FEMA probably would pay for much of the building if it were built as a tornado shelter, the city shifted gears and pursued that money. 

The overall construction cost of the building now is $1.5 million, of which Urbandale is paying about 15 percent, the architect said.

The building is about 6,000 square feet and about 4,500 of that is a storm shelter. A glass hallway along the side of the building is not tornado proof but will allow light in from the southern exposure.

The poured concrete shelter house have a large meeting room which can be divided into two areas by a partition, a very simple kitchen, restrooms, a catering unloading area, and storage rooms for tables and chairs.

"It's a very simple building," Schipper said.

He said he expected to get final approval on the project from FEMA within the next month and then the city could seek bids from construction contractors.